zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: I read the post concerning an apparently high $
: 65 Speedmaster with discussion about
: devaluation in relation to how dim the
: markers were. At least that is what I
: inferred from the short discussion. I could
: not find the item and I don't know the
: price. I'm looking at a couple of 60's
: Speedmasters and so far I have not taken
: this aspect into account. Should I be paying
: big attention to this? Elsewhere I've read
: about the tritium having a half life of 12.5
: years, but that the phosphor mixed with it
: reacts to sunlight and "excites"
: the tritium, so the markers remain
: luminescent for years. I know I'm
: paraphrasing and probably don't have it
: quite right but I think that is the essence
: of it. So, if the dial markers are really
: patinaed and browned out, will they not
: luminesce, or be dim and should that be a
: factor in the price? Thanks for your
: thoughts.

I don't really have any experience with watch lume, but browned out tritium shouldn't really glow that well. You should ask factor that in for the price (if it is already high). Half life of tritium is 12.5 years and companys can add 'dope' to increase it to 25 years. So a 50 year old watch should have (on maximum) 1/4 of its original lume or 1/16, depending on half-lifes alone......